Time and Place | Just before 9 a.m. in my favorite chair.
Eating and Drinking | Green tea, coconut yogurt with almonds and dark chocolate, raspberries and blueberries. Yum.
Reading | Since I last updated, I’ve finished several books: The Royal We by Heather Cox and Jessica Morgan (basically William and Kate fan fiction — absolutely perfect lakeside reading), The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (Ghostbusters meets James Bond, if James Bond were a lady spy who is also a kickass administrative genius) and Unspoken by Sarah Rees Bennan (sassy Gothic about a spunky high school journalist and sorcerers). Clearly I’m on a kick for fantasy (or fantasy-ish) British fiction.
Watching | A friend and I went to see Jurassic World last night. It was entertaining and fun — exactly what you want in a summer blockbuster about genetically modified dinosaurs.
Listening | Yay, audio books! I finished up The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande before we left for the cabin, and our car listened to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari on the drive. Rebecca Schinsky at Book Riot summed up my thoughts on Modern Romance perfectly: “Ansari’s personal reflections are candid and funny, but the sociology sections (co-written with actual sociologist Eric Klinenberg) are kind of just interesting enough … Despite the unevenness in narration and overall engagingness (that’s totally a word now, go with it), I found a lot to enjoy here.”
Cooking | The boyfriend made this spicy shrimp pasta in garlic tomato cream sauce last night — so delicious.
Blogging | In the last couple of weeks, I shared some great comics you can read start to finish, my cabin weekend essentials, and some reader recommendations for Book Riot’s Read Harder challenge.
Sharing | There are a lot of thoughtful, emotional pieces in the wake of the shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last week. This post links to a lot of great ones. I’ll just point out two as especially important — Charlie Pierce at Esquire on why this is terrorism and Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic on why we need to take the Confederate flag down. This was terrorism. It was a racially-motivated hate crime committed by a white supremacist. Calling it anything else is cowardly.
Loving | Sparkling margaritas from a plastic mug while sitting on a boat in the middle of a lake is what dreams are made of.
Decluttering | I took the plunge Friday night and did a big book purge. Every book came off my shelves. About 160 fewer went back on. Nothing is double stacked and every shelf has a bit of wiggle room. It’s so great.
Anticipating | I’ve got a lot of writing to do today, and I have to do the dishes at some point, but I’m hoping that it’ll be a pretty relaxing days before jumping into what looks like a busy week. Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?
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I need to do a book purge as well!
What is it about having wiggle room on your bookshelves that is so exciting? I have some space, but it’s funny how I’m not trying to fill it up.
You are so right about the massacre. It was an act of terrorism pure and simple and we need to start calling using that word more often, not just when it’s done by those with foreign backgrounds.
Speaking of Coates, have you received a copy of his latest memoir? I’m thinking about reading it this week in light of what happened on Wednesday. For now, I’m reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and a book on homeschooling.
Have a good week.
I have an egalley of the Coates book, and I preordered it in case I can’t get to the galley in time. That one and Citizen are high on my list, when I can get into the right brain space to read them.
Daaaaamn, 160 books purged! I’m so impressed! Congratulations! And I’m glad you’re enjoying Unspoken — I burned through the whole trilogy in May and got a huge kick out of it.
Ghostbusters meets James Bond meets Memento might sum up The Rook more completely!
You are right!
I loved loved loved The Royal We! Perfect summer beach/lake read, as you said. It helps that I’m a near-obsessive Will & Kate fan, but I was just so pleasantly surprised with how engaging and decently written the book was itself. I think I was expecting much more of a hack job cashing in on the massive royal fandom rather than a novel I would have read regardless of any Cambridge connection.
I didn’t really know what to expect but I agree, definitely engaging and well written on top of some of the fun of getting “inside” the Royals.
Great job on the book purge! So difficult, but necessary.
I’m almost done with Uprooted by Naomi Novik, another great fantasy, and looking at what to read next. I have The Shepherd’s Life on hold at the library and I’m excited for that one.
I’m so glad to hear more good things about The Royal We! It’s on my library list and I can’t wait to read it.
Your instagram of The Rook has totally sold me!
I think you will like that one!
Margaritas on a boat sounds like perfection. Now I’m itching for my own lake vacation a month from now! The Rook sounds fantastic; I might have to track down a copy!
I know this is a random thing to latch onto, but that coconut yogurt sounds like Chobani Flips! If so, I’ve been loving that particular one SO MUCH.
Yep, it is — I couldn’t find more at the grocery store when I went this week… so I’m hoping they haven’t stopped carrying it or something!
160 books purged? How can you do that?? I wish I had your willpower! Your British reads sound like fun. I’ll be checking those out!
Good job purging the shelves! Oh I have trouble letting books go ….. So hard sometimes